204 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



they obtained from the Legislative Body a dispensation of 

 the law of iSoi as regards the restrictions put upon herring- 

 fishery by cod-fishing vessels.* The premiums decreed in 

 1802 were in the next years paid for the very few ships 

 which ventured to sail ; but the dread of British cruisers 

 was generally stronger than the hope of a bounty. Matters 

 became still worse under King Louis' reign, when Holland 

 was virtually a province of France, and the Emperor, as 

 omnipotent there as in the lands under his own direct 

 government, kept the fishing fleet constantly in readiness 

 as instruments for the one great plan he never could put 

 into execution, viz., the descent on the British shores. A 

 <' Dutch Herring Company " was formed at London in 1809, 

 for the purpose of cultivating the Dutch method of curage ; 

 and employed some captive Dutch herring-fishers, without, 

 however, obtaining a durable success. The period when 

 Holland was actually annexed to France (1810-1813) is 

 remarkable in the history of Dutch sea-fisheries, not, of 

 course, because of anything like prosperity for them, but 

 because during this short period the Dutch fishery-laws were 

 cancelled. As a consequence of this, coast fishermen, who 

 alone could sail now and then with hope of escaping the 

 British cruisers, used their new-gotten freedom to cure fresh- 

 herring caught off the Dutch coast ; and so good was the 

 produce of their curage that dealers from Vlaardingen and 

 Maassluis, whose busses could not sail to their accustomed 

 rendezvous off the British shores, did not disdain to buy cured 

 herring from the coast and sell it under their brands. The 

 only instance of French sea-fishery legislation is an Imperial 

 Decree of April 25th, i8i2t by which the herring, cod, and 

 fresh-fisheries were permitted, but under such rules as to 



; Notulen Staatsbewind, May 22nd, 25th, 1803 ; April 22nd, 1805. 

 t Bulletin de Lois de V Empire Francais, 4m e s^rie, vol. xvi. p. 373. 



